November 11th - If you hold back your feedback or opinion - what might you learn?

The story...

What a great thing it is to spend time listening to others.  I expect that it's great for me because I've spent a relatively small portion of my life actually doing it well.  I especially appreciate listening to those who feel safe enough to lower their guard when together - lowering those protection devices that keep us safe from the imagined and real damage that others have and might inflict.  

Those guards, or boundaries, are important to keep us safe yet they also may be restraining us from experiencing unexpected treasure together.  The treasure box may reveal: insights, perspectives, interpretations, facts, ideas, happiness, joy, solutions, imagined realities, strong emotions, spiritual happenings, love experienced, road blocks, fundamental truth, inklings of what might be...  

Wow, I can hardly wait to listen to somebody new.  Where might I find the people and environment where I might risk listening, sharing, loving, and reaping this good stuff of life?  You probably guessed it - the only church in town.

Just for today...

"In the past I tried to control people, places, and things, believing that my way was the correct way . . . my way, based on insisting upon my will, did not work. Yet I kept trying. It was an insane way to live."  Courage to Change (p. 316)

So, you have a need to give somebody else feedback.  Is it true, kind, and necessary?